This page was updated Nov. 2024
The Wellesley RDF is located on the Wellesley/Needham line at 169 Great Plain Ave., Wellesley, MA 02482. Sometimes called “the dump” by residents, the facility is actually a transfer station—stuff comes in, stuff goes out. The town does not provide curbside removal service. Residents haul their own trash, recyclables, and other items to the RDF where they sort, toss, and repeat, as needed.
RDF updates
The Wellesley Recycling and Disposal Facility (RDF) resumes Sunday hours on April 6, 2025.
RDF hours:
Monday-Wednesday: 7am-noon
Thursday-Saturday, 7am-3:45pm
Sunday hours, 10am-3pm—The RDF will be CLOSED on SUNDAYS December 2025-March 2026.
The RDF encourages residents to use the area’s recyclables separation system, which results in a cleaner product to sell at market. Revenue from recyclables (about $250-300k/year) goes to the town’s general fund. Some say the RDF’s biggest competition is the waste service companies who, for a fee, pick up residents’ trash and recyclables curbside.
What Wellesley reuses
Wellesley has a Reusables Area where residents drop off old furniture, rugs, toys, books, games, puzzles, lamps, garden equipment, and more. The quest for free, good stuff gets pretty competitive at this volunteers-run area of the RDF. There’s also a books area, the last stop on the way out of the RDF. The Reusables Area is open Wednesday-Saturday and the area closes 30 minutes before the RDF closes for the day. The Reusables Area has closed for the season. It will reopen spring 2024.
What Wellesley recycles
- boxboard and chipboard
- brown paper bags
- cardboard
- mixed office paper
- newspaper
- refundable containers
- glass
- steel and aluminum cans
- aluminum foil and trays
- plastic bottles
- plastic non-bottles
- rigid plastics
What Wellesley composts
- grass clippings
- leaves
- brush
- bushes
- Christmas trees
- food waste (residents drop it off, and food waste gets picked up by a third-party source)
Wellesley Food Waste Program
The Department of Public Works is trying to sign up as many households as possible for the Food Waste Program to join and help reduce landfill waste, save tax dollars and generate renewable locally-generated power.
To get started, fill out the following form to reserve a free starter kit which can be picked up at the RDF on a first come first serve basis. Starter kits include: compostable bag liners for your countertop container, and a larger bucket with screw on lid for storing/transporting your food waste from your home to the RDF. The starter kit does not include a countertop container. There are many different options and price ranges for this unit. These countertop units can be found on Amazon, Home Depot, Lowes and many other retailers.
We’re Food Waste Program participants, but admittedly not true acolytes. After our weekly grocery run. everything that’s been mocking us in the fridge and pantry goes into a compostable bag. Next stop is the freezer, then to the RDF on dump run day. Should we be scraping our plates into a food waste bag after meals? Yes. But we don’t. So if you’ve considered participating, maybe don’t feel like you have to harangue your family to properly process every single ort. Start somewhere, and see how things go.
Not to brag, but have we ever told you what great backyard composters we are?
What Wellesley collects for pick-up by outside contracts
- appliances
- batteries
- computers and monitors
- fluorescent bulbs
- paint
- propane tanks
- tires
- waste oil
- cell phones
- electronics
- eyeglasses
- inkjet cartridges
- bulky waste
- metals
- non-natural wood materials
Special collection days
- Hazardous Waste Day (once/year)
- Paper shredding events (twice/year )
- Paint collection events (first Thursday of every month, April-October, 3pm-6pm)
